Traffic Calming Fix Eyed By Boca

BOCA RATON — The city is considering ways to fix its traffic calming program, which has been short on money and long on the list of people hoping to slow the cars coming through their neighborhoods.

A report presented Monday at the City Council's workshop recommends the city consider stricter regulations for neighborhoods that want to apply for traffic calming, such as mandating that 35 percent of residents in a neighborhood must approve before traffic calming measures, such as speed humps or traffic circles, are installed.

It also recommends requiring residents to take on some of the burden of paying for the projects through issuing revenue bonds or general obligation bonds. The cost to residents would vary, depending on what kind of traffic calming measures are installed in their neighborhoods.

The city ran out of the $250,000 allocated for its traffic calming program late last year, after the City Council approved projects in two neighborhoods. If the city continued the program at its current level of $250,000 a year, it would take at least 30 years to complete the 22 projects pending, said Jorge Camejo, Boca Raton's director of development services.

"It really becomes an issue of whether we have enough money to move forward," Camejo said.

The amount residents would have to pay for the projects would depend on their scope, and whether the city uses revenue bonds or general obligation bonds.

The council did not take any action on the report, but will at a future meeting.

City Manager Leif Ahnell said that getting greater participation from residents, through public meetings in neighborhoods and by requiring 35 percent of homeowners in a neighborhood to agree to traffic calming projects, could keep people from using the projects simply as a way to add trees and landscaping to their streets on the city's dollar.